Carlo Scarpa Paperback – May 7, 2017

Overall, this is a great introduction to Carlo Scarpa. It is an easy read--you don't have to speak 'Architect' to get it--and it is full of nice photographs.Prior reviews have criticized the book design, but I find it refreshing and graphically well-designed. Yes, some of the text is a bit close to the spine, requiring you to apply some force to spread the pages enough to read the content. But do not let the book design be the deterrent for purchasing this book.I give this 4-stars only because the images were not quite as compelling as those found in Guido Beltramini's and Italo Zannier's book on Scarpa. Also, Taschen's book on Scarpa is worth getting as well.If you want awesome photographs, get Beltramini's book. If you want a turn-by-turn walk-through, get McCarter's book. Or just get both of them like I did.

This book achieves where many architecture books fail: The text and photographs work together symbiotically. The author is particularly good at describing design in clear, precise sentences. The photographs illuminate his descriptions (or vice versa) and the book itself is finely printed and bound. The experience of the book becomes a sensuous echo of the buildings themselves.

My first reaction to the format of this book, while not as severe as B.Olson's critique below, was to be taken aback by Olson's same observations. Yet on spending time with the book, I quickly not only got accustomed to its quirks, but came to appreciate them in the context of the subject. In other words, what at first seemed overly mannered (not just the odd but in practice relatively workable spine/hinge, nor the also odd but, in readings, content-enhancing bold print, but oddities such as indenting the first two lines of paragraphs) I came to see in compelling ways making deference to an architect whose work is so profound that, as author Robert McCarter makes poignantly clear, it defies academic, formal explication.Since discovering him forty years ago I have bought and have read every word I could find in English on Carlo Scarpa, and partly due to the aforementioned opacity of the work stated by McCarter was skeptical of yet another treatise on him, by an architect/historian who I had not heard of. But from the first few pages I was absorbed in McCarter's knowledge, research, and crystal insights into this mystical opacity. (Opacity in Scarpa's instance being far from pejorative, but a gift for anyone who will approach the architecture with a sense of history, mind and heart.)McCarter serves Scarpa well, and has given at least this longtime student of The Master a wonderful gift.(P.S. to B. Olson: though I am as stated above not unsympathetic to your criticisms of the physical book itself, I would urge you to reconsider giving McCarter's work a one star rating, which at first glance - one of the misfortunes of the Amazon rating system - gives the casual reader of the reviews a negative view of a work of scholarship that you seem to in fact admire.)

A must have for any Scarpa enthusiast. Excellent writing and photography of projects designed by one of modernism's most unappreciated heroes.That said, the design of the book itself is a horror. The terrible spine/hinge design does not allow the book to open flat and actually tends to want to self-close the book, and so you end up spending your time fighting with the book instead of reading it. Reading it is also a chore as any quoted text is bold, large and a different font from the main text which is gray.In the end, the overall book design is a completely self-indulgent trainwreck that really and truly interferes with trying to read it.

Excellent

great photos of genius's work, who's very underappreciated by the public

I love this architect...so I may be biased. This is a great book for those who what to look at some of Scarpas greatest work "holistically" (as best possible in text and images). You go to touch he's work not just to see or read about it.

This was my husband's Christmas present and he loves it. My stepdaughter also spent a lot of time reading it while she was here.Quick shipment, excellent merchandise.

Fantastic and very quick delivery. This is a Christmas gift so cannot comment on content but it looks a beautiful book and good value.

Un libro ben realizzato, curato sia nei contenuti che nel pregevole materiale fotografico che li accompagna: si presta senz'altro per essere un interessante regalo.

Poco interesante

Gran bel libro, sia da un punto di vista di grafica, carta e contenuti. Obbligatorio in ogni biblioteca che si possa definire tale.

Fantastic book about an amazing architect